Fintech adapts to soaring energy prices
Rising energy costs are changing how financial institutions use artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and digital services. These changes are forcing a shift in long-term technology strategies.
Greg Holmes, EMEA Field CTO at IBM’s Apptio, explained that electricity prices have moved from a minor operational cost to a key factor in financial services. What was once predictable now affects competitiveness, resilience, and where firms run their most demanding workloads.
AI’s energy demands clash with price swings
Training and running AI models is one of the fastest-growing expenses for banks and fintech companies. When electricity prices rise, as they have in the UK and Europe, operating these workloads becomes far more expensive.
Holmes noted that institutions now examine model efficiency and GPU use more carefully. They track energy consumption hour by hour, pinpoint cost spikes, and forecast when certain AI tasks might no longer be affordable. For many queries, firms can optimise by choosing a model that is cheaper to run without impacting the output.
Energy fluctuations are now a real limit on how quickly AI can scale.
The change isn’t only about saving money. It’s about maintaining control over a resource that’s becoming harder to predict. Firms that fail to adapt may lose ground to competitors with more stable or cheaper energy access.
Cloud providers under pressure over energy practices
Energy efficiency has become a major factor when financial institutions select cloud and AI providers. Holmes said differences in how providers source power, manage consumption, and report emissions directly affect cost predictability, sustainability goals, and operational stability.
Some cloud providers operate in regions with steady, low-carbon energy. Others depend on grids vulnerable to price swings or supply shortages. These differences now matter as much as performance, security, or compliance when firms choose partners.
Clear carbon accounting and the ability to run workloads during off-peak hours are becoming key advantages. Holmes cautioned that picking a provider without understanding its energy profile is increasingly risky.
Firms can no longer treat energy as an afterthought. It’s now central to procurement decisions, with long-term effects on budgets and sustainability targets.
UK’s AI goals depend on cheaper electricity
The UK’s ambition to lead in AI faces a challenge: some of the highest electricity costs in the developed world. Expanding AI in Britain comes with a steep price premium, which could discourage investment and slow domestic adoption.
If volatility persists, some organisations may choose to run compute in cheaper markets, which would slow domestic adoption.
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Success isn’t just about having the technology. It’s about having the power to use it.
Firms adopt new strategies to manage energy risks
Financial institutions are taking steps to reduce energy-related risks. Some organisations are shifting workloads to regions with cheaper or more stable energy. Others are spreading workloads across multiple cloud providers to reduce exposure to volatility in any single market. Hybrid approaches are also gaining traction, with some firms revisiting private data centres to regain control over energy sourcing.
FinOps teams are starting to model cloud decisions based on energy curves rather than just compute pricing. Rising costs are also accelerating interest in workload automation—letting non-urgent AI tasks run during off-peak hours when power is cheaper or moving workloads to regions with cheaper or more sustainable energy.
FinOps ties these efforts together by linking technology spending to business outcomes.
Holmes described the trend as part of a larger shift. Energy is no longer just a utility bill but a strategic factor shaping innovation, competition, and future planning.
The message is straightforward. Financial services firms must treat energy as a critical constraint. It requires attention, planning, and sometimes a complete rethink of how technology is deployed.
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